Fuel-laundering plant uncovered under straw bales

A MAJOR illegal fuel laundering plant has been uncovered hidden among bales of straw in a farm shed.

The plant was discovered in Ballybay in Monaghan, and could generate about four million litres of black market diesel a year.

It is understood that three men fled the farm when gardaí and customs officers arrived.

A major clean-up operation is also under way after 5,000 litres of toxic sludge, a waste product of illegal laundering, was found stored on the farm.

The illegal plant cost the exchequer €1.8 million a year.

Officers from Revenue’s Customs Service, the Garda Síochána and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food carried out the raid.

They also seized 36,000 litres of fuel, bleaching earth, two oil tankers and a grain lorry with a concealed tank at the plant. Equipment used in the operation was dismantled.

It is the eighth significant fuel-laundering discovery made this year — four of which were in Monaghan. The raids have prevented 55 million litres of laundered fuel making their way on to the market this year.

Meanwhile, 5,000 litres of toxic sludge believed to be waste from laundering has been discovered on a roadside in Louth.

Louth County Council officials found six large plastic bins, one of which had burst and leaked into a farmer’s field, near Faughart, just north of Dundalk.